A diverse group of local musicians gathers Thursday evening, Jun 5 at St. Thomas More Student Parish for "An Evening of Latin American Music," with all proceeds benefiting the Kalamazoo Refugee Resource Collaborative. The 7 p.m. concert showcases the work of Latin American composers while addressing urgent needs in the refugee community. Cara Lieurance speaks with Michael Zutis and Silvia Roederer.
Michael Zutis, music director at St. Thomas More, organized the benefit in just 35 days after learning about the collaborative's dire funding situation. "They've lost most of their federal funding—all of it maybe—and right now they have the funds to hire one case worker for 10 hours a week to work with 47 different families," Zutis explains. "It's not enough, not even close."
The concert features performers with personal connections to the immigrant experience. Pianist Silvia Roederer, professor emerita at Western Michigan University, fled Argentina with her family in the late 1960s during political repression. "We were fleeing a very dangerous situation, and I think that's the case for many of the immigrants that we're reading about today," Roederer says.
Zutis says there's an element of serendipity in this effort: "It's a concert of people who are mostly migrants themselves, which was not on purpose, who collectively have this great program of all Latin American music. Where else would you get to do that other than Kalamazoo?"
A $10 donation is suggested. More information is at the St. Thomas More Student Parish website.
(Audio transcribed and summarized with assistance from Claude AI).
